Fertilehealthy

Healthy You Challenge Check-In

It was a good week!

I walked every day for my “Walking Off Weight” program.  Some days I almost had to bribe myself, because a) I’m lazy and b) I don’t enjoy walking around my neighborhood.  When the sessions get longer I’m definitely going to do them on a treadmill at gym.  Some days my hips and back hurt while I’m walking, but I know that will get better.

I’ve increased the amount of water I’m drinking and am down to two cups of coffee per day.  No soda.  I did have a glass of wine one evening.  Sigh.

I’ve also increased my fruit intake and we’re having salad for supper most evenings.  It makes a big difference to the quality of sleep to go to bed on a “light” stomach.

Obviously, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, but I don’t feel miserable or deprived.  Baby steps, remember?

Ps.  Got a message from my cousin last night.  She got married in April this year and has just found out that she’s pregnant.  I’m happy for her, but feeling a bit “left behind” today.

More on blood pH levels

Susan had a question following yesterday’s post:

I'm confused about how fruits that taste acidic are alkaline?

I love questions! So I decided to not only answer this question, but expand a bit on the necessity and benefits of an alkaline-forming diet.

The body’s internal environment is affected both by what we eat and what’s left over after what we’ve eaten has been digested.  Most foods leave post digestion residues, called “ash”.  Ash is the leftovers of oxidized food-fuel.  It is the part of food that is left after our bodies has used the vitamins, minerals and enzymes. The ash in our bodies is similar to the ash in our fireplaces, only in a fluid environment - the bloodstream.

Ash from food is either acid or alkaline.  The ash of high-protein foods is a fairly strong acid.  The ash from most fruit and vegetables is alkaline.  Remember, it’s the leftovers we’re talking about.  The foods themselves aren’t necessarily alkaline, but they have been through a complex chemical process.  Freshly squeezed orange juice (as opposed to commercially processed orange juice with additives), for instance, is very alkaline-forming. 

You may remember the pH scale from high school chemistry.  PH levels fall between zero and fourteen, with zero being totally acid, fourteen totally alkaline and seven neutral.  The blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH of 7.35 to 7.45.  As you can see, the leeway is small.  However, the body cannot function outside of those parameters and would quickly shut down.

When we eat foods that leave an acid ash in the bloodstream, the body has to neutralize that acid in order to bring the keep the pH level within the safe parameters.  That’s normally not a problem.  We are equipped with neutralizing minerals that take care of the situation.  These minerals are part of our alkaline reserve.  

The problem comes if we abuse the system by eating a diet high in alkaline-forming foods and deplete our alkaline reserve.  The body will do what it has to in order to save itself from imminent death. The body now has two choices:

1. It handles the emergency by finding other neutralizing minerals from around the body to do the job.  That would be the minerals our endocrine system needs to function properly, thus affecting our weight and a whole host of other body functions.  Another effective way of doing this is to leach calcium from the bones, resulting in bone loss and osteoporosis.
2. It can dump the acidic ash into the cells.  This causes the cells to become toxic, decreases their oxygen levels and harms DNA.  Eventually most of the acidic cells will die. However, some will evolve, and adapt, and survive by becoming abnormal, mutated cells. Malignant cells. These multiply indefinitely and without order. They are cancer.

As you can see, it is in our best interest to eat a diet that is high alkaline forming.  By eating a lots of fruit and vegetables in their natural raw state every day, you will be doing just that.

Steps to healthy hormones

We saw yesterday how our hormones affect our weight, our mood, our reproductive functions and just about every process in our bodies.

So what do we need to do to ensure that our endocrine system functions properly and our hormones are balanced?

The first step is to eat a high alkaline-forming diet.  Everything we consume leaves either an acidic or an alkaline residue in our bloodstream.  It is important that our blood is slightly alkaline, as this allows the immune system to work at its best, prevents cancer cells from multiplying, and promotes healthy endocrine function.  An high alkaline-forming diet maintains the correct mineral levels in our bloodstream and bones, preventing osteoporosis and tooth decay and allowing our muscles to contract and relax correctly.

The foods that leave an alkaline residue in our blood are raw fruit and vegetables.  Even fruits like oranges, lemons and tomatoes are alkaline to the body, although they taste acidic. 

Cooking alters the chemistry of these foods and makes them acidic, so it is important to make sure that you aim to eat a high percentage of your fruit and vegetables in their natural raw state every day.  The easiest way to do this is to have at least one fruit meal and one salad meal per day and to snack only on fruit.

Eating this way will give your endocrine system an enormous boost.  Your blood sugar will stabilize, you will have all the vitamins, minerals and fiber you need to heal and repair your body, you will delay the aging process and you will lose weight.  As a bonus, you will lose your craving for candy, baked goods and soda.

The second step is to include the right fats into your diet. 

One of the most enduring myths is that all dietary fat makes you fat and that if you you go on a low-fat or fat-free diet you will become slim and stay slim.  Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work that way.

Fats are essential in the diet.  Firstly, fat is an essential source of heat and energy.  Secondly, fat is also needed for padding and insulating organs and nerves.  Thirdly, they are needed to help with the absorption of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and fourthly they are a source of the essential fatty acids required for the proper functioning of the endocrine system, especially the adrenal glands.

Initially on a low-fat or fat-free diet, you may lose some weight, but as your body adjusts to a reduced energy intake, you will find that you start craving salty and fatty foods.  This craving is your body’s way of letting you know that you are lacking a vital nutrient - essential fatty acids.  And if your body is not getting these EFA’s, you could find your appetite increasing, your metabolism slowing down and your body retaining fluids.  Insufficient fatty acids can also result in skin disorders, menstrual and fertility problems, gallstones and loss of hair.

The answer is not to increase our fat intake.  We have to make sure that we are eating the right fats.  I can never get my saturated, unsaturated, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats straight, so I’ll make it easy for you.  Your endocrine system’s enemy is heated fats, or trans-fats.  That includes cooking oil, fish oil, margarine, coffee creamers and any oil that doesn’t say “cold-pressed” on the bottle.  Obviously, if you heat your cold-pressed oil, you change it into a trans-fat!

I’ll do a separate post about why these fats are bad, but in the mean time, let me tell you how you can get good fats in your diet.  Extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil, flax oil, hemp oil, corn on the cob, butter (in small amounts, since it’s a saturated fat and therefore contains cholesterol), avocado, raw nuts and seeds and olives. 

Isn’t it ironic that these foods, that are usually verboten to dieters, are the very tools to help us lose weight?  Obviously, if we overeat on these, we will store the excess as body fat, so we need to use our common sense.

The third step is to stay hydrated.  The endocrine system is totally reliant on water for almost every chemical reaction.  With adequate water, all the systems in our body work at optimum levels to the benefit of our health.

The quality of your water is also important.  Municipal tap water is contaminated with many harmful substances, so filtered water is a far better option,  unless you live in an area where water is fluoridated, in which case you should lobby to stop fluoridation in your area and stick to bottled water.  For more on the dangers of water fluoridation, visit the Fluoride Action Network website - it will make your hair stand on end!  Filtering does not remove fluoride.

The fourth step is be exposed to natural light and preferably sunlight every day.  I wrote how this affects our weight in this post, but in short, when we are not exposed to regular natural light, our body clock may gain or lose time (like jet lag).  This disturbance in our Circadian rhythms causes hormonal imbalances, affecting our mood, weight, menstrual cycles, fertility, sleeping patterns and our body’s ability to utilize calcium.  Twenty minutes to half and hour spent outside daily with the eyes uncovered will go a long way to ensuring endocrine health.

The fifth step is to get moving.  Exercise has a direct and positive effect of at least 16 different hormones, including those that impact on your weight.  Whatever form of exercise or physical activity you choose, make sure that you get your body moving for at least 20 minutes each day.

Following these five steps will go a long way to improving the functioning of your endocrine system, which will have many knock-on effects on your health, including making weight loss easier for your body.  I am not perfect when it comes to this and we needn’t be.  We just need to try to turn these steps into habits and we will already have come a long way.

There are some foods and substances that really are enemies of our endocrine system and make our weight loss efforts more difficult.  I will be discussing them in more detail in upcoming posts.

It’s all about the hormones!

We’ve all heard people say “I’m fat because of my hormones” or “My underactive thyroid prevents me from losing weight”, but very few us really know what the hormonal system has to do with weight control. 

The answer to that is quite simple.  Everything.

We’ve been so brainwashed to believe that our weight is a direct result of too many calories eaten and too few expended.  This is true of course, but the fact is that our hormones control our appetite, metabolism and a whole host of other functions that determine how our bodies deal with the food we eat.

The hormonal or endocrine system is a series of inter-related glands that are intricately involved in almost every aspect of body function.  They manufacture and release the hormones which make our bodies work.  When one gland is not functioning properly, it affects the whole system.  Therefore we need to view this system as a whole.

Let’s take a quick look at the individual glands and what they do.

The control center of the endocrine system is the pituitary gland.  As well as controlling the whole endocrine system, it’s also directly responsible for helping the body utilise fats for energy, proper function of the liver and kidneys, production of growth hormone and the formation of cartilage and the skeleton. 

The pineal gland produces melatonin and serotonin, two neurotransmitters that make you feel good and sleep well. 

The thyroid gland has a variety of important functions.  It is responsible for mental composure and alertness, strong and steady heart function, blood circulation, blood fat levels, balancing the appetite, bowel function, body weight control, fluid balance, muscle strength, the ability to fight infection and for controlling calcium levels in the blood.

Behind the thyroid are the four small parathyroid glands, which control the distribution of calcium and phosphate in the body.  They act together with Vitamin D to strengthen our teeth and bones and to clot our blood.

The thymus gland produces the white blood cells needed for a healthy immune system.  Good quality sleep releases growth hormone and this hormone stimulates the thymus to renew, repair and rejuvenate cells.

The adrenal glands help control mineral salt levels (especially sodium and potassium), blood pressure, blood sugar levels, they stimulate protein use and they also mobilise fat for energy.  Furthermore, they help the body cope with stress (including the fight-or-flight response) and control inflamation and immune responses.  They also produce estrogen after menopause, thus affecting weight in post-menopausal women.  If the adrenal glands don’t work properly, the results could be dehydration, low blood sugar, weight problems, diabetes, arthritis, allergies, hayfever and an inability to handle stress. 

The main job of the pancreas is to produce insulin, which controls blood sugar levels.  It works very closely with the adrenal glands.  Insulin resistance is an indication that this part of the endocrine system is not working properly.  The pancreas also produces digestive enzymes and has a powerful effect on appetite and therefore weight.

The gonads are the male and female sex glands which produce the hormones testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. 

The hypothalamus is a part of the brain containing several important nerve centers that control body temperature, hunger, thirst, body weight, fluid balance and sexual function.  It is also closely connected with emotional activity and sleep and acts as a link between the nervous system and the endocrine system.

And I used to think hormones were the things that make life difficult for teenagers! 

Now that we know better, what do we do about it?  Have our hormone function tested and take medication to “regulate” our hormones?

No!  This system is designed to work properly when we feed it correctly and avoid the foods that interfere with and compromise endocrine function.  Not only will our weight return to normal, but our reproductive systems will function properly, we will handle stress better and be healthier.

Tomorrow I will tell you what we need to eat and do to ensure endocrine health.  Stay tuned!

Baby steps

It’s one thing to have motivation, but one still has to have a plan. 

So for nutrition, my plan is as follows:

• Drink plenty of water.  There’s a lot of factors that determine how much water we should drink and this handy Hydration Calculator takes them all into consideration.  According to that I should be drinking 4-5 liters of water per day, depending on my intake of water-rich foods.  Of course I haven’t been drinking a lot of water lately, so I’m going to have to ease into this.  I can’t go from 1 to 4 liters in one day!
• Have at least one fruit meal every day and snack only on fruit.
• Have at least one salad meal every day.
• Have at least one green juice (plant blood) every day.
• Avoid food additives as far as possible.  I don’t need anything preserving my fat cells, thank you very much!

As you can see, it’s not about “giving up things”.  I don’t eat junk food anyway, so it’s not a biggie for me.  And when you’re drinking that much water, you’d be hardpressed to still find room for soda, alcohol or coffee!

As for exercise, I found a gem of a book, Walk Off Weight by Andrew Cate.  We all know that walking is extremely good exercise and Cate has put together three wonderful 8-week programs. 

I started the “Beginner” program yesterday.  I find it hilarious that someone who’s been walking for 38 years can still be called a “beginner”, but it makes sense.  I am obese and haven’t been active for quite a while.  While walking for 10 minutes at an easy pace for the first few days looks like child’s play on paper, I have been feeling it these last two days.  Better start slow and work my way up!

The plan is to do all three programs consecutively.  After that I may be ready for Couch to 5K.  Who knows? 

In a few weeks I’ll start Pilates classes again and in the new year I’ll add weight training (isn’t it weird to be talking about the new year already?).  In the meantime I get up every morning, swing by the bathroom, slap on some sweats and shoes, drink a glass of water and go for my walk.  It wakes me up and puts me in a great frame of mind for the rest of the day.

I also plan to be more consistent with body brushing, meditation and going to bed early. 

I’m not really going to worry about the scale too much.  I weighed myself this morning and will do so again after the first 8 weeks.  I found a great site for logging my workouts and stats.  They even have graphs for measurements.

I feel good about these measures.  They’re entirely doable and with the right attitude, can be very enjoyable. 

And they work!